Actor’s Third Wife

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 18

Actor’s Third Wife

Death of Mrs. Pat Somerset —-Police Secure Autopsy

■AT SOMERSET, the English actor, was taken to the police headquarters at Los Angeles for questioning concerning the death of his wife, Mrs. Shelby Worrall Somerset, formerly known as “the Texas Beauty.” Mr. Somerset had called in Dr. Herbert Wall, and informed him that he had found his wife’s lifeless body in bed. It appears that the physician expressed an opinion that death was due to heart disease, but he refused to sign the death certificate because he was not present at the time of Mrs. Somerset’s demise. A post-mortem was ordered. At the autopsy the county surgeon was not satisfied that the slight heart lesions revealed had caused death. He therefore ordered a chemical analysis to be made of vital organs, and the case was reported to the police. “ Captain Ray Cato, head of the Homicide Squad of the Police Department, explained that he was desirous to learn from Mr. Pat Somerset more about the manner in which the actor found the body of his wife, and there were several other details on which he wished more light. It had been believed by the general public that the doctors were satisfied that the former “Miss Texas” —as Mrs. Somerset was called when she won a prize as the beauty queen of the Southern State—had died from a heart attack.

Therefore the decision of the county surgeon, after the autopsy, that there should be an analysis of internal organs, caused some surprise.

Mr. Pat Somerset, for some years,

has been the central figure of a series of real life matrimonial dramas staged in two continents. His adventures in marriage began ten years ago, soon after he adopted the stage as a career, when he married Miss Margaret Bannerman, with whom he was appearing in “Three Wise Fools.” Two years later he was divorced, Miss Edith Day being named in the case. Miss Day was then the wife of Carle E. Carlton, an American citizen, and when she accompanied Mr. Somerset to her native Jpnd in 1922 to appear in “Orange Blossoms” —on the stage —the immigration authorities at Ellis Island tried unsuccessfully to have Mr. Somerset deported on grounds of “moral turpitude.” Later, Mr. Carlton and Miss Day were divorced, and in 1923 Mr. Somerset and Miss Day were married. After lasting over four years the romance ended in the United States divorce courts. Prize For Beauty Last December Mr. Somerset was married at Hollywood to Miss Shelby Worrall, a London girl whose success in a beauty competition in Texas had brought her into prominence. She had previously been married. Within a few hours of the ceremony both bride and bridegroom were arrested on a charge of drunkenness; but the case against the bride was dismissed, while Somerset received a suspended sentence of ten days’ imprisonment—which meant his release. Mr. Somerset, who is 31, is a son of the late Admiral Holme-Sumner. He served in the Army and the Air Force during the war and entered on a stage career in 1919.